Tracks: 2018FLEX Full Conference, Manufacturing on Flex
Roll-2-Roll processing of flexible organic electronics shows great potential to increase the production capacity and reduce the manufacturing cost. However, this requires a minimum mechanical stability to avoid damage during processing and winding of the web. This paper reports on the progress made using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) for the deposition of protective coatings, which improve the mechanical stability of water vapor barrier films and organic devices. The coatings do not only improve the stability during manufacturing but also show major potential to improve the device stability during operation. The PECVD process is based on a hollow cathode arc discharge that allows the high-rate deposition of dense polymeric coatings. The results in this paper demonstrate the deposition of thin film coatings with low residual stress coatings as well as good adhesion properties to PSA Adhesives. The high deposition rates (up to 1 µm*m/min) and low deposition pressure (1-3 Pa) allow in-line combination with for example thin sputtered barrier layers. The protective coating reduces the damage to the barrier layer during rewinding and thereby reducing the water vapor transmission rate up to 50 %. The organic content of the layer allows for adhesion forces towards lamination adhesives that are more than 10 times higher compared to inorganic barrier coatings like Al2O3.